it's funny because it convinces me that export controls don't work so why do them

I used to think the same, that export controls didn't work, until I realized that China has leapfrogged the West on every technology that wasn't subject to export controls. And the only ones where they're still behind are the ones under export controls.

The purpose of a system is what it does, not what it doesn't do.

It's like the war on drugs, just one more crackdown will fix everything this time.